Let's be honest fundraising is a competitive sport.  Not in a Hunger Games sort of way, but the reality is that nonprofit organizations compete for prospective and current donors' hearts, minds, and generosity.  When it comes down to meeting an organization’s critical mission, most nonprofits are protective of the relationships they have worked hard to cultivate. Each nonprofit organization develops the same infrastructure to acquire funding to sustain and grow its funding and volunteer resources.  Many nonprofits, particularly those created by and within underserved and under-resourced communities, lack access to the infrastructure that includes professional, trained, and experienced staff, potential prospects, and necessary tools.  

 This infrastructure includes:

• Professional staff: It is vital to have someone responsible for making fundraising happen.

• Communication:  Cultivating, soliciting, and stewarding constituents.  Engaging prospects and acknowledging donors.

• Tools and Resource:  Systems that keep track of gifts, pledges, and information on prospects. 

• Policies and Procedures:  Updated and approved policies and procedures for gift processing, data entry, and reporting.  

RaisingChange is building a new and innovative Fund Development Infrastructure by looking at fundraising built upon the belief in collective action and abundance. 

 Collective Action: RaisingChange Agents are focused on the ecosystem of change and all the individuals, families, organizations, businesses, leaders, and followers that are contributing to making change and impact. Your mission and my mission aren’t in tension, they aren’t in competition, they can happen together. RaisingChange Agents are members of the underserved communities that are committed to developing "resource aggregation" skills that can be harnessed by the communities they are deployed in. They are trained to look for connections, strategic resource aggregation, and engage communities to identify leverage potential.

Abundance Mindset: The notion that there is a fixed number of slices in the "funding/resource" pie is the notion that chains us to a competitive and deficit mindset. RaisingChange Agents cultivate the currency communities have to give, including time, energy, expertise, spreading the word, and signing a petition. All of that currency is the abundance that communities can access. Some of the most innovative work happens with very little money. RaisingChange helps organizations identify resources they have to achieve cross-sector impact successfully. An abundance mindset sees that there are enough resources for everyone and that sharing those resources is critical to widespread impact.

 We are recruiting and equipping our first cohort of RaisingChange Agents on June 28, 2022.  RaisingChange will be conducting its first Grant Writing Workshop beginning Tuesday, June 28th at 6:00 pm.   At the end of the 8-week session, participants will:

• Understand grants as a part of Resource Aggregation

• Develop a Case for Support.

• Understand how to decipher a grant notice inviting applications.

• Set up the grant management system.

• Submit a grant application.